The
November 12, 2018 auction of Impressionist & Modern Art Works on
Paper and Day Sale at
Christie's New York is highlighted by several good Picassos, Vuillards,
Lempicka and some fine works by Renoir, Signac, Sidaner, Ernst,
Hepworth and Montezin.

Lot 172 is a very fine oil on board by Edouard Vuillard
(1868-1940). It measures 14 5/8 by 23 1/8 inches and was painted
in 1893. It is entitled "Interieur, trois femmes en
conversation." It was owned by Henry Moore of Much Hadham,
the sculptor.

The catalogue entry provides the following commentary:

"Painted in 1893, Intérieur, trois femmes en conversation dates
from an important period of Vuillard's association with the Nabi
circle, during which he produced the most challenging, sophisticated,
and affirmatively modern work of his long career. The Nabi group, which
took its name from a Hebrew word meaning prophet, was founded by a band
of young artists—Maurice Denis, Paul Ranson, Pierre Bonnard and
Henri-Gabriel Ibels foremost among them—who objected to the
conservative curriculum at the Académie Julien in Paris, where they had
met. Denis, the most vocal proponent of Nabi ideas, dated the inception
of the movement to the summer of 1888, when Paul Sérusier brought back
from Pont-Aven a small landscape painted under Paul Gauguin's tutelage.
Dubbed Le Talisman, the
canvas used pure, unmixed colors to communicate the artist's emotions
and sensations before the motif, rather than to transcribe the actual
appearance of nature.

"Vuillard met
Denis and his compatriots at the Académie Julien in 1889 and began his
most intense experimentation with Nabi theories the following year,
which he described in his journal as “the Sérusier year” (quoted in
G.L. Groom, op. cit., p. 9)....

"The present
work depicts three women in conversation—two standing with their hands
on their hips, while the third enters the frame from the left, barely
recognizable as a figure. While the figures’ identities remain
undisclosed, it has been suggested that the women may be seamstresses
or dressmakers, and the painting has often been referred to as Les Couturières. Vuillard
explored the theme of the seamstress many times throughout the 1890s—in
the majority of these works, the seamstresses are seen at work with
tools in hand, but in the present scene, the viewer catches the women
in a moment of leisure, during a short break from the working day.

"The painting
is noteworthy for its sense of profound absorption, reminiscent of
interior scenes by Johannes Vermeer and Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin,
which the artist would have surely studied at the Louvre. The two
standing women are depicted immersed in conversation, their heads
angled towards one another and shoulders slightly hunched. The
insistent flatness of the image, moreover, renders the two women
inseparable from their environment; they seem not so much to inhabit
the space as to merge with it. Elizabeth Easton has written: “The
paintings of women sewing stand out in Vuillard's oeuvre for
their decorative beauty, their complex construction, and their sense of
intimacy. [They] are icons of the inwardness that informed Vuillard's
personal approach to Symbolism...These pictures also serve as metaphors
for Vuillard's concept of himself as a painter. In depicting women
conjoined with their surroundings much like the patterns of the objects
they sew, Vuillard in some way reflects the union between the artist
and the work he creates...

"With its radical pictorial and spatial experiments, Intérieur, trois femmes en conversation heralds
many of the most important artistic developments of the early twentieth
century. Regarding the work of the Nabis, Claire Frèches-Thory has
written: “The bold apposition of violent colors announces the Fauves;
the juxtaposition of planes, seen from different angles, prefigures the
geometric constructions of the Cubists; the forms are sometimes
distorted to the point of being virtually Expressionist; details take
on the force of emblems and blazons branded onto the surface of the
painting...like a sort of collage. [The Nabis'] numerous inventions,
discoveries, reflections and premonitions were extraordinary when we
evaluate them in the context of the 1890s” (The Nabis: Bonnard,
Vuillard, and their Circle, New York, 1990, p. 27).

"The present
work was previously in the collection of sculptor Henry Moore, whose
daughter Mary Danowski recalled: "He was the most tremendous
teacher. He would use a Vuillard or a piece of African sculpture to
make a visual point" (quoted in Independent, 15 May 1997)."

The lot has an estimate of $600,000 to $800,000. It sold for $672,500.

Lot
112 is an energetic and exciting gouache over pencil on paper by
Frantisek Kupka (1871-1957). It is entitled "Formes animees," and
measures 10 1/4 by 9 inches. It was painted circa 1920. It
has an estimate $25,000 to $35,000. It sold for $81,250.

Lot
140 is a large study by Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956) for a mural for
the Marine Transportation Building at the New York World's Fair.
The watercolor, gouache, black conte crayon and pen and india ink on
jointed paper was created in 1938. It measures 22 by 99 1/8
inches. It has an estimate of $150,00 to $200,000. It sold for $187,500.

Lot
193 is a great small colored wax crayons and pencil on a card by Pablo
Picasso (1881-1973). It measures 8 1/4 by 11 1/8 inches and was
painted in 1970. It has an estimate of $150,000 to
$200,000. It sold for $372,500.

Lot
126 is another by fine Picasso drawing. Entitled "Famile," it is
a pen and india ink on paper that measures 10 1/8 by 13 5/8 inches and
is dated circa 1920. It has a modest estimate of $30,000 to
$50,000. It sold for $75,000.

Lot
104 is a very nice pastel and brush and india ink on paper by Picasso
entitled "Banjo." It measures 12 5/8 by 18 inches and was painted
in 1926. It has an estimate of $150,000 to $250,000. It sold for $150,000.

Lot
406 is a study by Edgar Degas (1834-1917) for his large oil painting in
the National Gallery in London entitled "Petite filles spartiates
provoquant des garcons," a work the artist spent 20 years on. In
the London work, which includes several more figures, the girls have
loin clothes. This lot, which is one of four studies for the
London painting, has an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000. It sold for $1,452,500.

Lot 256
is a strong, small oil on panel by Paul Signac (1863-1935) entitled
"Pont des arts, inondation." It measures 13 3/4 gy 10 5/8 inches
and was painted in 1930. It has an estimate of $400,000 to
$600,000. It sold for $492,500.

Lot 273 is a lovely oil on
canvas by Henri Le Sidaner (1862-1939) entitled "Le Port." It
measures 36 1/4 by 28 3/4 inches and was painted in 1936. It has
an estimate of $350,000 to $550,000. It failed to sell.

Lots
288 and 289 by Tamara de Lempicka, "Composition abstraite aux
tourbilons," 21 1/2 by 16 inches, above, and "Composition abstraite aux
rectangles blancs," 24 by 20 inches, below. Both are oils on
canvas and were painted in 1955.

Lot
288, "Composition abstraite aux tourbilons," is an oil on canvas by
Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980) that measures 21 1/2 by 16 inches and
was painted in 1955. It has an estimate of $25,000 to
$35,000. It sold for $68,750.

Lot 289, "Composition abstraite aux rectangles blances," is another oil
on canvas by Lempicka that measures 24 by 20 inches and was also
painted in 1955. It has an estimate of $30,000 to $50,000. It sold for $93,750.

Lot
454 is a lovely oval oil on canvas landscape by Pierre Eugene Montezin
(1874-1946). It is entitled "Marais de la Somme" and measures 27
7/8 by 33 inches. It has an estimate of $25,000 to $35,000.
It sold for $52,500.

Lot
277 is a handsome landscape oil on canvas sketch of Le Cap Negre by
Henri Edmond Cross (1856-1910). It measures 9 7/8 by 17 3/4
inches. It has an estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. It sold for $35,000.

Barbara
Hepworth (1903-1975) has two very nice bronze sculptures in the
auction. Lot 307 is a polished bronze work entitled "Vertical
Form (St. Ives)" that is 18 1/2 inches high and is numbered
1/9. It has an estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $324,500.

Lot 310 is a 23 3/8 inch high bronze entitled "Four Square (Four
Circles)." It is dated 1966 and numbered 2/7. It has an
estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. It sold for $285,500.

Lot
299 is a wood and iron sculpture by Max Ernst (1891-1976) that was
created in 1964 and is entitled "Un microbe vu a travers un
temperament." It has an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000. It failed to sell.